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The Player: Rednor sets out to combine marketing, entertainment

Nearly 30 years ago while head of Pennsylvania State University's concert committee, Jordan Rednor brought names like Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Miles Davis to the school's University Park campus. While he loved music, he opted post-college to pursue a career in international banking instead. Finance and foreign countries were a "chance to master a bigger challenge," Mr. Rednor, who joined Manufacturer's Hanover in 1975, recalls.

Following nine years in international banking, the Queens, New York-born-and-raised Mr. Rednor moved to a U.S.-based role at Marine Midland Bank, where he built a lending group for advertising and marketing-services. "I found myself often counseling agency chiefs on their options," Mr. Rednor said. His clients included Ammirati & Puris, Arnell Group and Fallon Worldwide. Intrigued with the marketing and advertising industries, he struck out on his own eight years ago to form the Rednor Group Limited, where he continued advising marketing-services clients, sometimes as an investment banker, sometimes a strategic partner and sometimes as a financial officer.

His appreciation for creative industries, sparked back at Penn State, has grown over the decades. "As a banker, Jordan got to understand the business from the inside," said Lynn Rotando, now chairman-CEO of ICDL US, a skills-certification company, who in the mid 1980s as CEO of North Castle Partners in Stamford, Conn., hired Mr. Rednor. "He's a linear guy, but he discovered an ability to work with the slightly madcap way that agencies work. It's not like you can say, `we put 10% more money in research and development and we'll have a faster chip.' "

The latest venture of 48-year-old Mr. Rednor is RednorGundersen Group, launched in February in New York. The firm provides some of the same services offered by Rednor Group Limited, as well as new ones. Five years as president-chief operating officer at Interpublic Group of Cos.' DraftWorldwide, where he led an aggressive acquisition strategy, honed Mr. Rednor's transaction skills. "He understands how to structure deals," said Howard Draft, founder, chairman-CEO, DraftWorldwide. "People like him, and they want to do a deal with him." Mr. Rednor negotiated the sale of DraftWorldwide to Interpublic in 1996.

marriage possibilities

With recruiter Steve Gundersen, head of Gundersen Partners, as his ally in RednorGundersen Group, Mr. Rednor is exploring industry growth areas, such as possible marriages of entertainment and marketing.

RednorGundersen Group has already inked a strategic partnership with TV and movie producer Gavin Polone of Pariah and director Hype Williams, known for his work on music videos. Their goal: to develop product promotions organically, working in tandem with film or TV producers. "It is a better way of marketing, if you can effect it," Mr. Polone said. It appears Mr. Rednor's inching back into the entertainment game.

Fast Facts

Name: Jordan Rednor

Age: 48

Now: President, RednorGundersen Group

Challenge: To lead his new venture into entertainment-marketing opportunities